Senpai vs. Sensei

The senior member of a group in Japanese arts; a mentor.

An upperclassman or elder student.

a Japanese (language) teacher.

a suffix attached to the name of a teacher (principally in translations from Japanese)

Sensei, Seonsaeng or Xiansheng (先生) is an honorific term shared in Japanese, Korean and Chinese; this is literally translated as or . In general usage, it is used, with proper form, after a person's name and means the word is also used as a title to refer to or address other professionals or persons of authority, such as clergy, accountants, lawyers, physicians and politicians or to show respect to someone who has achieved a certain level of mastery in an art form or some other skill, e.g., accomplished novelists, musicians, artists and martial artists.

Example: ‘person born before another’; ‘one who comes before’; ‘teacher’;